Janet Jackson has been named the headliner of the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Her July 2nd performance will be her first concert since 2008 and since Michael passed away.

Good for her! We can’t wait to see what she’s got!

(source)

(source)

Dealing with her older brother’s death hasn’t been easy for Janet Jackson, but she’s finally ready to talk about it.

In the 43-year-old singer’s first interview since Michael’s June 25th passing, Janet opens up in the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar about her pain, the grieving process and how the ordeal made her a stronger woman.

“People can have rhinoceros skin, but there’s a point when something’s going to hurt you,” she tells the magazine. “Not everyone is stone, stone. I haven’t watched the news in weeks. I had to ask my chef, ‘How’s Obama doing?’ I haven’t read a newspaper.”

The last time Janet saw her brother alive was on May 14 at a family event two days before her birthday.

“We had so much fun that day,” she says in the interview. “We kept calling each other after and saying how great it was.”

Janet was in Atlanta, on the set of her upcoming Tyler Perry movie, when she heard the tragic news of her brother’s death.

She immediately flew back to Los Angeles to grieve with her family and was on hand for the memorial service at the Staples Center during which Michael’s daughter spoke.

“I was really proud,” she says. “People said to me that Michael’s daughter speaking really gave them a sense of how he was as a father, in her words. Paris is incredibly smart; they are all so smart. She’s a sweet girl. The kids are doing well. They’re with all their cousins; that family love will keep them going.”

In order to properly mourn the loss of her brother, Janet took a three day beach vacation and then threw herself into her new movie.

The grieving process taught Janet about her own strength too, which she attributes to her mother Katherine.

“Now at least I know that I can step up to the plate and not crumble when I’m needed,” she says. “When it comes to something like this that is so, so serious, so painful, so traumatic, I can handle it.”

Janet will honor her late brother Michael during a special appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night.

(source)

I know Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri were together for almost seven years but when I would see them together I never really got the feeling they were into each other. Hell, until they got together I thought Jermaine played for the home team.

Well now he can go back to doing what he was doing because the couple are over. No Jermaine at the memorial. No pictures of Janet and Jermaine consoling each other over the death of her brother. I think it has been over for a few months but because Janet is so secretive no one even thought to ask until Jermaine kept being a no show everywhere that Janet was during the past few weeks.

She probably would have kept it hidden until she found a new boyfriend. She is very good at that. It is tough in this town to be married for nine years and have no one know that until you get divorced. Jermaine was a producer on her last two CD’s which did really poorly. Don’t mix business and pleasure, especially when one of the people can fire the other or will be ordered to fire the other by a record company. Too much pressure.

Janet Jackson arrived at her brother Michael Jackson’s Holmby Hills estate Saturday, where moving vans arrived earlier in the day.

Janet Jackson, wearing dark glasses, drove up in a Bentley and went directly to the estate. About eight movers had taken dollies and packing equipment through the gates. It wasn’t immediately known what was being taken out.

Most of Michael Jackson’s family members had gathered in their Encino compound, where they are contemplating funeral arrangements and caring for his three children. They are feeling confused, upset and angry by the lack of information about those who were around the pop superstar in his final days, a person close to the family told The Associated Press.

Jackson’s family wants to know more specifics about what role AEG, the concert promoter that was staging his 50-date concert series at London’s 02 Arena, was playing in his life, said the person, who requested anonymity because of the delicate nature of the situation. They also want to know more about the role of his advisers and representatives, who they believe were put in place by the promoter.

AEG spokeswoman Natalie Whorms in London had no comment Saturday.

Jackson never communicated to his family who he had in place to handle his business affairs, the person said, adding that they were told by the singer’s phalanx of advisers that he likely had a will, but it may be many years old. The family is distrustful of what they are being told - but they are determined to find out more, the person said.

“There are decisions going down without the family being in the loop; it’s becoming an issue,” the person said.

Randy Phillips, AEG Live president and chief executive, said earlier Friday that it was Jackson who insisted that Dr. Conrad Murray, a financially troubled cardiologist who was with the entertainer when he collapsed Thursday, be put on the tour payroll.

“As a company, we would have preferred not having a physician on staff full-time because it would have been cheaper without the hotels and travel, but Michael was insistent that he be hired,” Phillips said. “Michael said he had a rapport with him.”

Jackson collapsed Thursday at his rented home in Los Angeles. Police seized Murray’s car in search of evidence, but have insisted that the doctor has been cooperative and do not consider him a criminal suspect.

Records reveal years of financial troubles for Murray, who practices medicine in California, Nevada and Texas; his Nevada medical practice, Global Cardiovascular Associates, was slapped with more than $400,000 in court judgments, and he faces at least two other pending cases and several tax liens.

The person close to the family said that while there were reports that the singer was distant from his family, Jackson spoke with his mother, Katherine, quite regularly and his father, Joe, had seen his son shortly before his death. His other eight siblings, including fellow superstar Janet, may not have talked to him recently but were not estranged.

Much of the family was holed up Friday inside the Jackson family’s Encino compound, including his three children, according to the person, who described them as doing “pretty good.”

“I don’t think it’s fully set in yet,” the person said.

In a statement, Lionel Richie said Jackson was “a world phenomenon. He was very misunderstood, but yet tried to desperately to be a part of this world. We all watched him as he struggled with that balance.”

Bette Midler described Jackson as “a showman without equal.”

“I personally intend to only remember the best of him, his kindness, his charm, his superb musicianship, his magical dancing and his beautiful voice,” she said in a statement.

The pop star left behind three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7. The elder children were born to ex-wife Deborah Rowe, while the youngest is his biological son, born to a surrogate mother.

Rowe and Jackson married in 1996 and divorced in 1999.

No family members were present in the mansion when Jackson died Thursday, the person close to the family said. In the 911 call released by fire officials Friday, an unidentified caller tells a dispatcher that Jackson’s doctor is performing CPR.

Asked by the dispatcher whether anyone saw what happened, the caller answers: “No, just the doctor, sir. The doctor has been the only one there.”

Coroner’s officials said they released Jackson’s body to his family late Friday night. The family is still trying to determine what kind of memorial to have for Jackson and when, and are debating between the idea of having a private ceremony or a grand celebration open to the public, the person close to the family said.

Jackson appeared to have suffered a heart attack, another person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity told the AP on Friday. A heart attack is a blocking of the arteries that deprives the heart of adequate blood and can cause cardiac arrest.

Jackson’s brother Jermaine said Thursday that it was believed the pop singer went into cardiac arrest, an interruption of the normal heartbeat that can be caused by factors other than heart attack.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office, which completed its autopsy Friday, said there were no signs of foul play or trauma, but determining the cause of death will require further tests that will take six to eight weeks.

Phillips said AEG Live held multiple insurance policies covering cancellation of the shows, and that some time in February Jackson submitted to several hours of physicals that the insurance underwriter insisted upon, and that Jackson passed them all.

“We had pretty good coverage, but a lot of it is going to depend on the toxicology results,” he said. “We need to know what the cause of death was.”

(source)

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett on the same day. Wow.

From TMZ

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.

Jackson had 13 number one hits during his solo career.

(source)

The King of Pop is back - in town, that is.

Michael Jackson has signed a yearlong lease on a mansion in the swanky Bel Air area of the city, a spokesman for the singer said Wednesday.

Jackson has been staying in the estate for about a month, said spokesman Tohme Tohme, who called the property “a little bit more than an average home.”

The lease agreement is for $100,000 a month. The home has seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and 12 fireplaces.

Jackson, 50, relocated to the city with his three children to be closer to Hollywood and the entertainment industry, said Tohme, promising that “the second half (of his career) will be better than the first.”

(Source)

Michael Jaclson dressing up like that doesn’t help the rumors that he has a lung ailment and that he is going blind? But then again he almost always goes out like that.

(Source)